Happy New Year, Tennis Junkies!

Masha disappointed
For 5 years straight, Maria Sharapova has used the upcoming Hong Kong Exhibition (Jan 7-10) to prepare mentally and physically for the Australian Open. This year, however, she has chosen to withdraw. Hmmm? One has to wonder if her shoulder will be ready when the world's best meet in the "land down under". To complicate matters, she only started hitting 16 days ago.

"I'm just not ready to play against the top class competition in Hong Kong, although I remain hopeful for Australia where I'm the defending champion."
Hopefully Masha will recover fully prior to the Australia Open. The JB Group 2009 Classic in Hong Kong features Jelena Jankovic, Venus Williams, Vera Zvonoreva and many other young talents.

Six Geesers Geesing

When I say "Bun", you say "Oven"

Lindsay and baby


Ladies and Gentlemen of the Court, we would like to announce that our beloved Lindsay Davenport is pregnant, AGAIN! So, let me get this straight. Just last week we got wind of her impending return to the game (Australian Open 2009), only to find out today that she “will be putting tennis on hold for the foreseeable future.” ("Quote"). If you feel like you’ve just been PUNKED, you are not alone. Needless to say, we were all looking forward to her return to center court. I guess we’ll have to wait another year to see if she can fool us yet again. Any gamblers?

Tennis Experiences Growing Pains

Tennis Grows Up
According to the annual research survey conducted by the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) and the USTA ("Survey"), tennis has shown continued participation growth for 5 consecutive years since 2003. In 2008, 26.9 million people have reported playing tennis regularly. “Tennis is stronger and healthier than it has been in decades,” said Jane Brown Grimes, USTA President and Chairman of the Board. “It’s great to see that the collective efforts of the USTA and our industry partners over the past five years are producing such great results.” The USTA has done a lot to support this positive growth, by making tennis more accessible to the general public. For instance, the USTA has worked hard to give underprivileged youth increased access to tennis programs and training facilities nationwide.

“By almost every key metric and based on the trends, the sport remains poised for growth in the coming years,” said Dave Haggerty, President of the Tennis Industry Association.

Significant survey findings:

  • The percentage of frequent players (those who played 21 times or more during the year) rose to 5.62 million, up 7% from 2007 (5.25 million)

  • The sport is retaining the players it has, as the number of continuing players is up 9% to 15.1 million from 13.9 million last year. A continuing player is defined as one who has played for more than a year.

  • The percentage of NEW players rose 3%, to 5.91 million.

US Wins!


To help bolster the excitement surrounding USA tennis, the USTA has brought the Davis Cup ("Link")to areas growing in tennis population. Remember Portland, Oregon in 2007? Well, yesterday it announced that Birmingham, Alabama was next on the list of hosts for the 2009 Davis Cup between the US and Switzerland, featuring Roger Federer, Andy Roddick and the Bryan Brothers. Imagine sitting in the Alabama stands watching the great Roger Federer whiz a steaming backhand down the line! A dream come true for countless fans!

And while we’re on the topic celebrities, the industry has greatly benefited from the support and contribution of US stars such as Andy Roddick, James Blake, and the Williams sisters. Their active involvement has certainly helped the sport to gain further notoriety.

This is fantastic news for everyone! We now have more players to compete against at the recreational level and hopefully, future young tennis stars to look forward too.

Let the madness begin!

Aussie Open Fans
With the Australian Open just under a month away, the excitement is building for what is likely to become one of the most intriguing and memorable seasons to date!

To the devout tennis enthusiast, the Australian Open is a welcomed reprieve from their dampened winter holidays. The heat and drama of Melbourne can be felt worldwide! To increase the intensity of the drama, fans are ever-so-loud at predicting who will triumph and who will fail. For the players, it is the start of a new season, a clean slate, a chance to show off their new found fitness and to start the new year with a big bang. The defending Champions have much to prove, as a fleet of fiery and enthusiastic newcomers fight to climb the standings and win that elusive 1st grand slam. Will the Champions prove their mettle, or will an up-and-comer steal the show? Here are our predictions for this years championships down under.

Men’s Champion: Roger Federer Roger Federer

Women’s Champion: Venus Williams Venus Williams

Why a tennis community?

We've been standing around the water cooler and have heard your concerns regarding tennis, especially in relation to finding local hitting partners and meeting new tennis friends. Being involved at the grassroots level of tennis has given us additional insight concerning the difficulties tennis players face daily. We, too, struggle with the same problems. At its most basic level, tennis requires two (or more) people, standing opposite one another, hitting a little green ball across a low net. When asked about the main deterrent to playing tennis, despite owning a racquet, the response seems universal: "I have no one to play with at my level!" According to the USTA, there are nearly 85 million tennis fans in the US, while only 5.2 million people play tennis regularly. That speaks to the importance of establishing an online platform where you can find local players at your level to schedule more matches and to play more tennis. Tennis FANS would be converted into tennis PLAYERS, no longer allowing their racquets to collect dust in the closet!

But finding a hitting partner isn't the only problem that needs to be addressed in the tennis community.

Unite
With one community platform, we can better unite local tennis organizations and make better use of these valuable resources. This will help to create a more knowledgeable tennis player while at the same time increasing access to more hitting opportunities.

Share
The gift of tennis is one of sharing. The sharing of information, the sharing of time, the sharing of the court. There are numerous ways in which tennis players can share the game with one another. Whether that be through a gear review, or the sharing of information regarding injuries and therapies, creating a silo of community knowledge that can be easily shared with the masses is a much needed aspect of the tennis community.

Manage
Tennis players need tools to manage their tennis lives. Whether you need to manage a team, or your individual tennis activities, our tools will make it easy and fun to manage your tennis life.

Have Fun
Fun is at the core of the tennis game. And the fun doesn't just include your time on the court. It involves a variety of things: playing, reading and writing stories about your tennis experiences, commenting on pictures and videos, reading about your favorite tennis superstars, and much, much more.

So, why a tennis community? To give you more access to other tennis players, and to increase your level of fun in the wonderful sport of tennis.

About Us

Welcome to our tennis blog y'all!


We are two guys Edgar and Jacob in Seattle, WA. We love and follow tennis daily, in fact, we love tennis so much that we talk about it all day, every day. We're complete tennis heads. When we're not working, we're on the court. Otherwise we're watching tennis or reading and writing about it. Tennis is a big deal, as you know.

This is our first blog, so we're learning as we go. Feel free to get in touch to comment, give us some tips, suggestions, or simply to say hello.

We are always looking for contributing bloggers to add posts to the Mobster Blog. So if you want to join us, let us know.

Thanks again for stopping by!


Edgar/ Jacob

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